Thunderstorms, heavy rain and flooding in forecast for KC after quiet start to spring
Brace yourself Kansas City. The beginning of spring has been quiet so far, but severe weather is on the way.
The metropolitan area will find itself in an active weather pattern this week, bringing strong to severe thunderstorms, large hail and heavy rains.
A few tornadoes can’t be ruled out, according to the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill.
“We are going to have storms pretty much into mid-week,” said Jared Leighton, a meteorologist with the weather service. “Probably starting in the next few hours, it’s going to be a pretty active stretch.”
The stormy weather will begin as early as Sunday afternoon with the chance for some showers and possibly a thunderstorm or two.
“These won’t be strong or severe — they will probably just get the pavement wet and move on,” Leighton said. The showers will continue on and off into Sunday evening.
More robust thunderstorms will come toward midnight and the early morning hours.
“That is really going to come through with heavy rain — maybe an inch or two of rain,” Leighton said. “There’s an isolated chance for some severe hail, which is the biggest concern.”
No tornadoes or strong winds are expected, but there will be pockets of gusty winds as well as some flooding from the heavy rain.
Tuesday is shaping up to bring more severe weather. But the forecast is still uncertain.
“Right now, the forecast is lining up for a round of severe weather on Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday evening,” Leighton said. “And then on Tuesday night, there will be another round of heavy rain that’s going to come through and that’s going to bring another couple inches of rain on top of what happens on Monday morning.”
The storms from Monday and Tuesday are expected to bring at least two rounds of heavy rain to the area. Rainfall totals from those storms are expected to be between 2 and 4 inches.
All types of severe weather are possible with the storms on Tuesday, including large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes. Flash flooding is also possible in the Kansas City area because of the heavy rains.
“Exactly how it pans out and what we are most concerned about is quite conditional and we probably won’t know until Tuesday morning itself,” Leighton said.
People need to get their severe weather plans together and get ready, he said.
This week’s storms appear to be breaking up what has been a relatively quiet severe weather season this year.
“We just haven’t had any conditions line up for severe weather just yet,” Leighton said. “I see that as a little bit of a bonus time to get those (severe weather) plans in order.”
Usually, there’s quite a bit of severe weather in March and through the month of April.
So far this spring, the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill has issued warnings for 13 severe thunderstorms and no tornadoes in the counties it’s responsible for.
In comparison, the weather service issued 71 severe thunderstorm and nine tornado warnings between Jan. 1 and April 30 in 2018.
In 2017, it issued 84 severe thunderstorm and 24 tornado warnings during the same period. In 2016, 123 severe thunderstorm and seven tornado warnings.
This year, Leighton said, “the fact that we had such a long inactive period could catch people off guard.
“We want to prevent that.”
The National Weather Service has compiled a list of resources to help people deal with anxiety when it comes to severe weather.
Leighton advised people to pay attention to the latest forecasts so they are aware of the potential threats.
Even if the severe weather threat fizzles, the heavy rains could cause some river flooding. In the Kansas City area, there’s a chance for flash flooding.
“There’s just multiple areas around the Kansas City area that tend to flood,” he said. “If you live in those areas or plan to travel into those area in the next three to four days, you need to be pretty cautious of how the road conditions are.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2019 at 10:48 AM.
